What can be said about Christmas 2005? A myriad of good things. I got to spend a ton of time with Josh which is really all I ever want to do anyway. For gifts he got me Serenity, a Coffee Pot, Coffee, The Chronicles of Narnia, a fancy clutch bag, a printer, printer cable, a USB hub and a coupon for Animal Crossing. Can I say delightfully spoiled? Well, he hardly sees me throughout the year so it's justified. I can't believe we've been doing this for SO long. In 2005 we saw eachother about 6 weeks total. Finally this summer may just allow us to be normal for a while and actually spend more than 3 weeks together. The plan is to fly up there after Matty's graduation and stay there until school starts up for me. Living with Josh in an apartment for a couple of months... sounds too good to be true. This can actually happen and it's phenominal. I'm thrilled.

2006

In June of 1996, my mom, and sister and I packed all our stuff into one U-haul truck and headed east from Cali. Saddest day of my life. On June 26 I'll have lived half of my life here in Texas, therefore I am a citizen. Texas hasn't been all that bad to me, but I still can't help but loathe it when compared to the California of my childhood. Yet the California of my childhood is much different from the California of today. I've come to the realization that I don't want to live there, just visit probably. Texas has given me a great high school experience, free college, a delightful boyfriend, and no income tax. Maybe it's not so bad being Texan... maybe my mind will change about that tomorrow.

My resolutions for my Texan year:

-save $1000
-spend the summer in West Lafayette, IN
-spend time with my Nonnie in SF
-write my Nonnie every two weeks or so
-keep in touch with friends, especially distant ones
-spend money responsibly, not frivilously
-keep ALL receipts
-follow throgh on committments
-make a 4.o this Spring
-loose 15 pounds
-be a great and RA
-read the Bible more frequently
-have some quiet time
-learn to play the piano
-get better on my flute
-be honest
-don't swear
-let my boundries be known, don't allow myself to get hurt
-go to SXSW
-love passionately
-appreciate acts of kindness and return the gesture

Alright 2006, bring it.

FROM NOW ON MY BLOG WILL BE COOLER!

So here's my synopsis of the past few days:
- justifiable desire to be foreign
- justifiable desire of love to be tangible
- justifiable want of being better looking
- justifiable nervousness

Sadly enough I feel like I'm in high school again. This experience is disgustingly familiar and that's the worst of it. I'm 20 for goodness sake, do other 20 year olds have these types of problems with love or am I just lucky?

I WISH I:

-was Foreign

-wasn't working on the night Josh comes home

-would keep better in touch with my friends

-could touch love to be sure it is there

-could look better for Josh than I'm going to when I see him again

-could get a response

-would stop being nervous about his coming home

How to Handle Elizabeth Deming: The Complete Compendium

Chapter 8: On Visitation

Article 1
First and foremost, you should understand that she is a very busy girl. She was born with this innate sense that she can do anything and everything and she attempts to do just that. She tends to over involve herself in a myriad of different activities, 50% scholarly, 30% labor, 15% social and 5% personal.

The social aspect is particulary the most difficult for her due to the composition of the group. It is comprised of oldest friends, old friends, new friends, newer friends, and newest friends, best friend and boyfriend. Because of the extent of the group and scholarly activities, it makes it difficult to spend time equally amongst them. Because of this, some of the people get aggrivated that she can't spend time with them and then feelings of anger come about. She doesn't know how to fix this problem, but observations show that due to concern, effort has been shown there is improvement being made.

From the girl, myself:

I got the 3rd degree from Jordan this morning at breakfast. He railed on me for not hanging out with him the past couple of nights when just Saturday I went to a movie with him. I try not to get aggrivated, but sheesh, I do have other friends too and I want to see them as well. Especially Ashlina! Plus, I've been busy with work and school both of which are pretty darned important to some people. Jeff asked me to dinner tonight, but Shannon is already taking me to Rosa's. We agreed on Wednesday lunch, but I still felt bad for not being available. Therein lies the problem: I feel guilty when I can't do things for people when they ask me to though I should just have enough nerve and backbone to say "no, I'm sorry" and hope they understand. There's a New Year's resolution for me. Work on social time management and being OK with not pleasing everyone and doing everything.

Done.

The past two weeks have been very trying on me. Venting this may help me deal with it a little better so it doesn't happen again.

Thursday was pretty harsh on me. I was still feeling very sick and I forced myself to go to all my classes. Well, Philosophy is my first class on that day and it did not go well at all. She gave back our essay assignment and I got a big fat C. That is the worst grade I've gotten on an assignemt in college to date. It was so depressing. Although, I know I didn't work as hard on it as I should have so I think I've learned my lesson well. That day I also almost got in a few wrecks and got very wet in the rainy weather. My one saving grace for that day was when I was in the UC grabbing lunch. Alex Yarbrough was doing homecoming elections and he said to me "Elizabeth, when I see you I just think 'College Student.'" That comment alone made me feel great and was an awesome compliment. It's little things like that that get me through these bad weeks.

Thursday night, one of my very good friends came in from Chicago and she spent the night with me at the dorms. Around 12:30, we walked over to the bonfire where Jordan and the rest of the ROTC people were guarding. The four of us climbed to the top of it and talked while gazing at the San Angelo city line. It was very special, I'm glad I got to share it with Elisa. Of course it made me miss Josh more, but that's a given.

Friday, one of my friends from the BSM volunteered to take me to get the soda from the Coca Cola company for the SGA Ramgate. While talking on the way over there, we found out we had a mutual friend. Ross is from Monahans and so was a certain band camp "fling" I had when I was a sophomore. James Fickenscher, which Ashlin and I affectionaly call "duck boy," happens to be Ross's best friend. When James was talking on the phone to me once, his friends(including Ross) were making fun of him and they even wrote a song about me and him. They referred to me as "Liz" and the song had something to do with Band Camp. I just realized that I never added him to the list of boy's I've kissed... that makes the number something... I don't know. Today James contacted me through facebook, so now we can see where we both are 5 years later. How ironic.

Homecoming is fianlly over along with Ramgate. It's nice to have that off my plate. I had a very good time hanging out with Jordan's parents and Jeremy this weekend. We all seemed to click very well with eachother, except for Jeremy contantly picking on me. Geez, it's hard to read that boy. I sometimes wonder why I get along better with boys than I do with girls. What's even more odd is that I trust boys more too. Weird huh?

I'm really hoping this week goes better. I need to pray about a lot of things, but hopefully life will start working a little better for me now homecoming is over.

Fall is the season for change, and it seems I am doing just that. I've shed my summer skin and with it I lost years, memories, dreams, etc... Things I thought were so planned out and secure, I'm beginning to question whether it really fits me or not. Things like that terrible "f" word, future. Is what I'm going to school for appropriate or am I selling myself short?

I have a plaque that reads "Trust your instincts" and a friend who gives the advice "Ninty percent of the time, you know what you have to do." If that is true then I fear for everyone around me because this bird won't be caged.

This is BIG.

The best words silenced, the worst ones spoken.

My friend Travis always jokes about how a real man cries. He says "it's always curled up in a ball in the shower." Well, when a real woman cries, it's always curled up in a ball on her bed. At least this woman does. The similarity is both have no hope of being comforted.

I believe I just lived one of the most pathetic moments of my life. I was journaling, trying to get thoughts out of my head and possibly onto paper when I began to cry a little. I looked around and to my left was a few pictures of me and The Five at Boy Scout Camp, one of my sisters and I at a wedding, and one of Josh and I in the Radisson in Appleton. Both of us smiling with his head is resting on my shoulder and his arms around my waist. I couldn't stand to look at it, it made me hurt worse and cry more.

Gabe, my new boss, said something the other day that really made me feel really small and insignificant. We were talking and I said something about me being the middle child in my family. "Oh, I should have guessed it" he said. When I asked him to explain what he meant by that he told me traits that he saw in me that showed I was a middle child: always keeping busy, always trying to please people, always trying to get attention... Well, I just sat there with that knife in my heart and was silent for the rest of my shift. I didn't really think I fell into that "always needs attention" category, but according to the Masters in Psychology guy, I did. My dad was usually the one who really took care of me because my mom was always obsessed with my two sisters. Dad's now gone and 1700 miles away and mom is still the same. So lets just say I've been pretty down lately since I got back from seeing my dad.

"Do you really miss me?"
"Feeling a little insecure, are we?"

Worst thing I could have possibly heard at that moment. "No." would've been better.

Then the moment came where this woman cried curled up on her bed alone in her room. Then cried some more after thinking of how pathetic she was for doing so in the first place. Which lead to more crying...


I really love you, but I don't love the things you say to hurt me.

Long, long eventful summer that no one will read about because it's in my private journal now and I don't feel like typing it all here.

RA training was pretty strenuous, but I graduated and had a successful move in weekend. My floor is one of the only one not packed to the brim right now, and I have a lot of cool girls. I bet Josh is glad I'm in the only All Women dorm on campus. Then again, he probably doesn't care.

Starting this year at ASU feels like my first year. I'm just way more involved, so I feel like a Freshman. I have a lot of new friends, and I still hang out with my old ones. I'm on the Ultimate Frisbee team which is so fun because it's a workout and allows me time to hang out with cool people. I had to relinquish my title as BSM Leader due to my duties as an RA. What's more important is that I'm there for my residents anytime they need me, because that's what I'm paid to do now. This allows me some time to regularly meet with Abs hopefully. I still need spiritual guidence you know? I've got a lot of work ahead of me this year.

I feel really distant right now, mainly because I'm too busy and he can't stay up a minute past 11.

So now I'm in California with my father and after being here a week the only question that comes to my mind is "Why the HELL did my mom move us to TEXAS?!" This trip has only confirmed and added fuel to my loathing of Texas. I can never be a true Texan, even if I have lived there more than half of my life.

It's beautiful here. The beaches are gorgeous and so are the mountains. The entertainment in the Bay Area is endless as well as the recreational opportunities. But even wth all its beauty California is not the greatest when it comes to the really important things in everyday life. The list of things that are too high goes on forever: taxes, property cost, homelessness, gas, dot dot dot. Enron really screwed these people over, though... and the Governator is really not doing a very good job.

All in all, it's a wonderful place to visit but I don't think I can ever live here again. :-(

I've got to quit it with the cryptic confusing posts I've been putting on here. Thanks to a wake up call, I've discovered it's not very fair.

Summer is over for me in San Angelo in about 4 days. It's gone fast, but has been so much fun. Not as good as 2003, hell of a lot better than 2004. I still have 2 weeks of summer in San Francisco, but when I return to SA I'll begin RA training and also will be moving out of my house. I already started packing my things up. My room is so bare without all of my artsy things. I wont be leaving much behind, most of my belongings fit into one big plastic container. The rest will be stored in Josh's parent's attic probably until we're married. Mixing Josh's and my style is going to be hilarious. Complicated rainbow hippie-esque meets simple black and white asian-esque. Can't wait. Ok, got off subject.

Back to the moving out thing. It's really weird finding all of your old things forgetten and tucked away in your closet. You have to decide what goes and what will be packed away in a box everytime you move unitl you give those things to your children. My lovely, very worn out rollerblades, some pictures I took in mall photo booths when I was 12, earings I loved in 9th grade, the knee brace from my ice skating accident, even a letter I wrote to my gradmother after she passed away. Also found were some skeletons: random pictures with ex-boyfriends along with a box of love notes from most of them. I'm not sure what to do with those things. I only am compelled to keep them for the sake of making fun of all the cheesy things they say. "Honey, you've got to see what this kid wrote me in 7th grade." Sheer entertainment.

Josh and I have been together about two years Saturday. Ups, downs, loops, turns, 2 stops, 3 go's, dates with pictures, and sleeping holding pillows. More years to come...

I fear the day when I actually have to talk about everything. Then I'll be forced to say everything I'm thinking when I'm being quiet.

I'm trying so hard to make all of this work, but there are pieces missing and that's what hurts the most.

I'm looking at this as a growing experience and plan to be mindful of everything. From this point on I have to see things as they really are and not what I would romanticize them to be.

Things are what they seem and time changes nothing.

Oh, Boy Scout Camp. How I love to get away...

Sick... tired... and crying. Welcome home, E.

I'm going to bed for 23987128371 days.

I'm sad.


I'm aprehensive about camp and I don't know if it was a good decision to go this year.

I have been looking into getting into the dorms for a while with the ultimate goal of becoming a Resident Assistant (A job consisting of being in charge of a floor and getting a huge discount on the price of room and board) The problem is you have to have 1 year of community living to qualify, which I only have through a couple summers of living at a boy scout camp. I went to the director of the Residence life office to ask some questions and she said that the summer camp living would qualify me, but all the positions were filled. She also suggested that I apply anyway just in case someone drops out of the position during the summer. So I did and I turned in the application on Tuesday. Wednesday, I get a call and a request for an interview. Thursday, I go to the interview and am given the information that a position had opened up in Massie. It was a short, yet potentialy life changing interview. I now am the new RA for the 2nd floor of Massie and I couldn't be more thrilled to move out of my house.

What this means is for about $350 a month, I get a private room in Massie and a good meal plan, not to mention basic cable, wireless internet access, refridgerator, and microwave. In addition to that, I get paid $6.65 an hour and am garunteed 20 hrs a week. I also get to continue doing the LOGOS lunch and Student Government and my flag intructing at Grape Creek.

It all happened really fast. I move in on the 15th, the day after I get back from San Francisco. I'm going to probably need some help, so those of you with big cars and helping hearts be listening for me. I thank God for all of this... it's almost too good to be true.

RECAPITULATION - English 2324.030

Wow, I'm really going to miss this class. I've never had a professor tear up about the last day of class. He said we were definately in the top 5 of his favorite classes of all time, and he's been teaching for 20 some odd years. This year he won the Texas Coligiate Outstanding Professor Award, which meant lots of honor and lots of money. He deserved every penny of it.

I've never liked English. At Central it was always the class that brought down my GPA and I always regreted going to. Though I didn't know it at the time, those 3 English G/T classes would prove to be the most beneficial classes out of my entire public schooling. (Info: though I learned a lot about literature, I still have trouble with grammar and spelling as you have read in my blog for almost 2 years) It turns out, Mrs. Underwood was taking Dr. Ellery's American Lit at the time I was enrolled in her strand of American Lit at Central. When I took Dr. Ellery, I recognized some of the things that Mrs. Underwood had tought us. Essentialy, I'd already heard a lot of his opinions of the books and stories from her.

I think my favorite work in that class was The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I liked the fact the she was a strong woman and though I didn't agree with the adultry committed, I enjoyed the tragic romance of her and Robert. I liked how she defied her husband with her actions and her way of just saying "No" to things she didn't agree with. She had been a caged bird for a long time and treated like a posession for most of her life. After her eleged awakening, she began questioning her roll and defying the conformity of the time. Wow, I loved that. One of my biggest fears is being a caged bird... Edna is an inspiration. (Though I know I'd never go off and commit adultry, that's just something to read about)

So that was my favorite work, among many. "The May-pole of Merry Mount" (Hawthorne) was another good one along with "Rip Van Wrikle" (Irving). Ben Franklin's "Autobiography" was awesome. He has a ton af wonderful adages that totaly stimulate your mind. I remember reading that and being so intrigued, it just pulled you in. How can an autobiography do that? It's interesting to think of what the world would be like if we actually followed some of his principles stated in his books. It's even more interesting to think about if everyone actually followed the Bible...

Anyway, a few of the adages are "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can accomplish today" and "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." I know you've heard them, but have you practiced them? Try it, it could lead to something life-changing. Haha, I tell you this though I've never tried it. This is all from a guy who was raised a Christian, refuted it and became a Diest, then proved Christianity to himself. Ha, again, if only others would follow his example. (not go against Christianity, but investigate it and find out why you believe it!)

All in all, that class was great and I learned myriad of new things and sharpened some old things. Mrs. McKinney, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Underwood did very well when teaching me all this stuff in high school.

New developments have come up. Right now I am having a very hard time deciding whether or not I'm going to live on campus . I have a the means to do so, but that would take away from my car money. So the thing is deciding between a decent car or the convenience of campus life. Also, I just got invited to be the hostess for LOGOS Lunch on Friday's at the BSM. This along with Student Senate, my job, and the Flag instructor thing is going to make my Sophomore year quite a year. On the bright side, it will all keep my mind off of Josh being away.

I feel really bad for my little sister. When I was a sophomore, I was friends with a lot of seniors. I was going to go to prom with Noe, but I decided on Darby. Darby then stood me up a week before Prom, so I ended up going with Matt Miller my sophomore year. It was great! Besides the whole getting pulled over for the first time part. Anyway, so my sister is really wanting to go to prom and she doesn't have a date. I'm even going to prom and I'm a freshman in college! So my goal for the next two days is to find someone for her to go with that is not taking her out of pitty, but out of fun. She just wants to dance!

I've been dreaming. Dreaming really odd things about people I know now in places I haven't been in years. I recently dreamt about a certain person and now I am acting differntly towards them. I act how I acted toward this person in my dream. I'm letting my relationship with this person be affected by what happened in my brain while I was unconcious. I can't go back to the way it was before because this encouneter feels so real and you can't just erase experiences from the brain (even though it didn't happen) This is completly bogus. I wish I wouldn't have had that dream at all. How and why does something like this happen? Dreaming can be detrimental to relationships sometimes. At least in the case where I can't overcome the occurance and treat it as what it was exactly: a dream.